On January 26, 2022 U.S. District Judge Frank Whitney sentenced Simone McIllwain, 30, to 235 months in prison and 20 years of supervised release for sex trafficking of a 13-year-old girl. Simone was sentenced in Charlotte, NC.
The teen victim was introduced to Simone through a mutual acquaintance in 2019, and shortly thereafter Simone began to advertise the victim online for commercial sex in Charlotte, NC.
Simone arranged for the minor girl to engage in sex acts at Simone’s hotel room and she kept a portion of the proceeds. At the time of the offense, Simone was on supervised release for a 2014 federal conviction in Florida, for transporting a minor to engage in criminal sexual activity.
In January 2020 law enforcement were notified that the 13-year-old female was a suspected victim of sex trafficking. Over the course of the investigation, law enforcement determined that from December 2 to December 25, 2019, Simone did in fact engage in the sex trafficking of the minor girl.
On April 19, 2021, Simone pleaded guilty to sex trafficking of a minor. She is currently in federal custody and will be transferred to the custody of the federal Bureau of Prisons upon designation of federal facility.
